X-coil 15” X 10” In Franconia, Az

[Chet]

My first outing with the 15” x 10” X-Coil was a very satisfying experience.

Settings used are; High Yield, Normal, Freq. Auto, Sens 20, Volume 12,Threshold 1, Tone 53, Vol Limit 12, Auto Smoothing Off, Ground Balance Auto, GS Off 

I ran a quick test on a 0.08 gram test nugget with the 10” round which produces some noise and false target responses when running with my wide open settings.

Changed to the new 15” x 10” X-Coil and ran over the 0.08 test nugget again. Both coils were getting a good loud response at approximately 3.5 inches.

I ran the 15” x 10” coil for 5 hours a day for 5 days. It was stable and quiet (except for a little very low level EMI). The noise and false target responses experienced previously with the 10” round coil were gone. There were no problems with ferrite balancing.

Franconia, AZ has produced some large nuggets. A 3 lb quartz rock with 15.9 oz. of gold was found there the previous week. It was a US Army Air to Air gunnery practice range during WW2. So you are forced to dig a lot of deep targets. There are a lot of bullets and small pieces of screen wire blasted from the towed targets.

I only found two small nuggets between bullets and wire pieces. They are 0.6 g and 0.2 g.

Overall this is a very sensitive coil and a pleasure to have the lighter weight and ability to get into smaller spaces. 

Have a good day,
Chet
 

[fredmason]

Chet

you give true meaning to patience and diligence!

no meteorite, so you were probably away from the strewn field.

very inspiring 

fred

[beatup]

Well done at keeping at it , what with digging all that military trash , also congrats on getting gold too .

[Nevada Brian]

Oh my Chet!   That is a lot of targets to recover.  Anyone of those could have been a big gold nugget.  I’m happy you did find two nuggets and had a positive experience with the new coil and made it home safely. 
 

I look forward to a new chart if there is one in the making.  
talk to you soon, 
Brian. 

[Steve Herschbach]

I don’t mind digging lots of bullets and she’ll casings but those really thin or tiny wire fragments are annoying. They sound so much like a small gold nugget, and then it’s just a bit of wire. 

Good on you Chet for cleaning up all that trash and getting paid a little gold for the effort. It’s those trashy locations that can have a large nugget still waiting just an inch down.

[Chet]

JW
Thank you; and congratulations on your finds. I experience similar hot rocks; I don’t like the big underground pointy ones that tend to give a sharp nugget type response.

Fred
It was about 10 miles south of Interstate 40 highway on Havasu Gold Seekers claims.
I did hunt the meteorite strewn field a few years ago for three days. No meteorites were found but again lots of bullets. 
Photo attached.

Beatup thank you.

Brian
The plan was to gather data for two more comparison charts. The last two days where raining and cold so I cut the trip short.  I will try again on the next trip. 

Steve
You are right on; the short wires are near the surface and can be found quickly with a little scrapping and a strong magnet. The long wires when in a wash can be quite deep and some hunting for just like a small nugget.

Have a good day,
Chet